Just another polar bear adrift in the sea

That’s it! I’m pulling over the car June 12, 2016

This morning in response to my statement that I have no sympathy for the Stanford Rapists mom and her statement that she now fears for her son’s safety a person I know said that he feels sorry for any parent who fears for their child’s safety. And I thought about whether or not my response was too harsh. Then the news about the nightclub shooting in Orlando came across my Facebook feed and things slid into perspective.

So I say “fuck her and people like her”. She should worry about her son’s safety. He is a safety risk to everyone who he comes into contact with. She thinks it’s unfair to lump him in with child molesters and pedophiles. Because somehow raping a grown woman is less serious than raping a child. As someone who was molested as a child and assaulted as an adult let me tell you there isn’t enough of a difference. So I say “fuck her and people like her”.

My son is gay. He and his husband lived in Orlando for many years. While they aren’t the clubbing type it still I pause and think about his safety. As I do all the time. He is at risk every day from hate like the hate which was behind the Orlando attack. Not because he is sick enough to attack a vulnerable human being like the Stanford rapist but because he chooses to love in a way some disagree with. So I say “fuck her and people like her”

My daughters only crime is being female in a society that treats us as property or less than our male counterparts. I worry about her safety every day because if, gods forbid, someone like the Stanford rapist choses to indulge in “20 minutes of action” she will be the one who suffers, who is humiliated by a system that still sees us as chattel, who will be forever changed by someone else’s violence. So I say “fuck her and people like her”

Those people in Orlando were killed for the unforgivable sin of being alive. The woman in Stanford was raped for the unforgivable sin of being in the path of a rapist. The people who preyed upon both do not deserve safety. They do not deserve to be in the company of good people. The mother who fears for a son she clearly thinks doesn’t deserve to be known as a danger to the people around him doesn’t deserve that comfort. Her son is a monster. He is the danger and other mothers need to know so they can keep their children safe. So I say “Fuck her and people like her”

To the people who think the gunman in Orlando did the right thing, to the people who are intolerant to the LGBTQ community, to those who think that cruel jokes, disrespect, anger, insults and hate speech to those of us who do not fit into the mainstream are ok because they are only words I say “fuck you and people like you”.